Jurisprudence: Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr.

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Jurisprudence is the study of legal theory, and in the western world, there are two primary legal philosophy camps that guild the passage, enforcement, and interpretation of laws. These two theories are natural law and positive law theory. Natural law is the older of the two and argues that law should reflect the objective morals of society. A few notable natural law theorists are Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King Jr. Positive law developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth century and argues that law and morals are not the same and that statues that have been passed by any human institution and have legitimacy regardless of perceived objective morals. A few notable positivists are Jeremy Bentham, John Austin, and H.L.A.

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